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03 Borehole Acoustic Waves PDF
03 Borehole Acoustic Waves PDF
34
Oilfield Review
40
70
80
90
110
170
Shear
head wave
Compressional
head wave
> The first few moments of simplified wavefront propagation from a monopole transmitter in a fluid-filled borehole (blue) and a fast formation (tan). Both
media are assumed homogeneous and isotropic. Tool effects are neglected. Time progression is to the right. Numbers in the upper left corner correspond
to time in s after the source has fired. Wavefronts in the mud are black, compressional wavefronts in the formation are blue, and shear wavefronts in the
formation are red. The compressional head wave can be seen at 90 s, and the shear head wave can be seen at 170 s.
Spring 2006
Borehole
Formation
Refracted P
Refracted S
Reflected P
2
1
Incident P-wave
Source
Mud velocity, Vm
P velocity, Vp > Vm
S velocity, Vs
35
Receiver
array
Transmitter
Zone of
alteration
Unaltered
formation
spacing and near-wellbore altered-zone thickness and velocity contrast (above). In addition,
ray tracing is used in inversion techniques such
as tomographic reconstruction, which solves for
slowness models given arrival-time information.
After the P and S head waves, the next waves
to arrive at the receivers from a monopole source
are the direct and reflected mud waves. These
are followed by trapped modes and interface
waves that owe their existence to the cylindrical
nature of the borehole. Trapped modes arise
from multiple internal reflections inside the
borehole. Wavefronts of particular wavelengths
bouncing between the walls of the borehole
interfere with each other constructively and
produce a series of resonances, or normal modes.
Trapped modes are not always seen on logs and
may be affected by borehole condition. In slow
formations, trapped modes lose part of their
energy to the formation in the form of waves that
36
Condition
Effect
Receiver
Attenuated
Reflected
ture
Fra
Attenuated
and slowed
down
Permeable
formation
Stoneley
wave
Transmitter
Oilfield Review
Compressional
wave
Shear
wave
Stoneley
wave
13
12
11
10
Receiver number
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1,000
3,000
5,000
Time, s
> Typical waveforms from a monopole transmitter in a fast formation, showing compressional, shear
and Stoneley waves. The pink dashed lines are arrival times. A sonic-logging tool receiver array is
shown at left.
Spring 2006
All of the above waves propagate symmetrically up and down the borehole, and can be
detected by monopole receiverstypically
hydrophones. Hydrophones are sensitive to
pressure changes in the borehole fluid, and have
omnidirectional response, meaning that they
respond equally to pressure changes from
any direction.
Waveforms recorded at a given depth are
initially displayed as a time series from the array
of receivers (above). In some recordings, the
37
STC Coherence
Waveform number
Stoneley
wave
Slowness
40
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
s/ft
340
5,000
Time, s
3,760
Slowness, s/ft
300
200
100
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
Time, s
5,000
3,770
Dipole Sources
So far, the discussion has focused on waves
generated by monopole sources, but for some
applications, a different type of source is
required. For example, in slow formations, where
monopole sources cannot excite shear waves, a
dipole source can be effective. The dipole source
primarily excites flexural waves, along with
compressional and shear head waves. The motion
of a flexural wave along the borehole can be
thought of as similar to the disturbance that
travels up a tree when someone standing on the
ground shakes the tree trunk. The analogy works
better if the tree trunk is fixed at the top and has
constant diameter.
Typically, a tool designed to generate flexural
waves will contain two dipole sources oriented
orthogonally along the tool X- and Y-axes. The
dipole transmitters are fired separately. First,
the X-dipole is fired, and a flexural waveform is
recorded. Then, the Y-dipole is fired, and a
separate measurement is taken. The flexural
wave travels along the borehole in the plane of
the dipole source that generated it. The particle
motion of the flexural wave is perpendicular to
the direction of wave propagation, similar to
S-waves, and flexural-wave slowness is related to
S-wave slowness. Extracting S-wave slowness
from flexural-wave data is a multistep process.
Flexural waves are dispersive, meaning their
slowness varies with frequency (below). In many
sets of flexural waveforms, it is possible to see
the wave shape change across the receiver array
as different frequency components propagate at
different speeds. Because the wave shape
13
38
Waveform number
11
9
7
5
3
1
1,000
3,500
6,000
Time, s
Oilfield Review
400
Stoneley
Slowness, s/ft
300
200
Dipole
flexural
100
Shear
0
0
Frequency, kHz
Spring 2006
TIV
y
Vertical axis
of symmetry
TIH
y
x
Horizontal axis
of symmetry
39
n
ctio
ve
Wa
n
atio
dire
Compressionalwave amplitude
pag
pro
e
Tim
A
Particle
motion
Slow shear-wave
amplitude
Particle
motion
e
Tim
Fast shear-wave
amplitude
Particle
motion
e
Tim
Horizontal axis
of symmetry
> Particle motion and direction of propagation in compressional and shear waves.
Compressional waves (A) have particle motion in the direction of wave propagation. Shear
waves have particle motion orthogonal to the direction of propagation. In a TIH anisotropic
material (bottom), a shear wave propagating parallel to fractures splits. The S-wave with
vertically polarized particle motion, parallel to the fractures (C) is faster than the S-wave
with particle motion polarized orthogonal to fractures (B).
Shear waves have particle motion perpendicular to the direction of propagation (above).
In isotropic media, S-wave particle motion
is contained in the plane containing the P
and S raypaths. In anisotropic media, an
S-wave will split into two shear waves with
different polarizations and different velocities.
The S-wave polarized parallel to the layering or
40
Oilfield Review
Dipole
receivers
Fast
S-wave
R13x
R13y
Slow
S-wave
R9x
R8x
R10y
Receiver-10 ring
R9y
Receiver-9 ring
R8y
Receiver-8 ring
Receiver-7 ring
R7y
R7x
R5x
R5y
R4x
R4y
R3x
R3y
R2x
R2y
R1x
Receiver array
Receiver-6 ring
R6y
R6x
Source
pulse
Receiver-11 ring
R11y
R11x
R10x
Dipole
source
Receiver-12 ring
R12y
R12x
Receiver-13 ring
R1y
Receiver-5 ring
Receiver-4 ring
Receiver-3 ring
Receiver-2 ring
Receiver-1 ring
Low-frequency
borehole
flexural wave
(exaggerated)
Undisturbed
borehole
Dipole
transmitter
pair
Ty
Tx
Spring 2006
x
x
Formation fast
shear-wave axis
y
Tool axis
y
Tool orientation
relative to formation
formations fast and slow directions, flexuralwave energy will be recorded by the offline as
well as the inline receivers.
The directions, or azimuths, of fast and slow
shear or flexural waves can be seen in a crosseddipole log. Creating a crossed-dipole log is a
multistep process. The first step is decomposition and recombination of the waveforms
41
Measured depth, ft
Inhomogeneity
Formation properties may vary not only with
measurement direction, as in anisotropic formations, but also from place to place, in what are
called inhomogeneous, or equivalently, heterogeneous, formations. As with anisotropy,
detecting and quantifying inhomogeneity using
acoustic waves will depend on the type of
formation variation and its geometry relative to
the borehole axis.
Standard sonic logging can characterize
formation properties that vary along the
borehole. Early sonic-logging tools run in vertical
Fast Shear
Differential
0
Slow Shear
Differential
0
25
Distance from
Borehole Center
2
0
ft
Gamma
Ray
10 gAPI 110 0
%
Distance from
Borehole Center
ft
Compressional
Differential
25
2 0
%
Distance from
Borehole Center
ft
25
X,480
X,490
42
Oilfield Review
Coal bed
Reflected
signals
Borehole signals
Spring 2006
43